Everything is Almost Perfect Here

I had an epiphany this week that has motivated me through several tasks, which I want to share:  Done is better than perfect!

Pareto's principle tells us that 80% of our results are produced by 20% of our efforts.  So within that 20% of effort, what is the difference between almost-perfect, and almost-almost perfect?   For me, quite a bit of time and procrastination - not necessarily improvement.  I don't think of myself as a perfectionist, since I don't really ever think there is a state of 'perfect.'  I do constantly doubt the done-ness of my work - and am always trying to raise the bar, thought - maybe there's a bit of perfectionism in there somewhere, driving me crazy.

This week I've been working on learning to back off and be satisfied with the second or third draft, as opposed to tweaking and re-tweaking and waiting until the morning to re-read and re-tweak.  Done is much better than perfect! It's a bit nerve-wracking for me, but the relief of being able to check the task off of my list is so much better than the weight of having it continue to hang over my head.

So for now, I'm adopting the mantra, and we'll see if it continues to drive forward momentum.

Broken Hearts Make it Rain

This morning I attended the Business Women's Leadership Group hosted by the Boulder Chamber.  The theme(fitting for Valentine's Day) was "Love Yourself & Your Heart," and featured a panel of speakers offering advice about heart health, stress management, work-life balance, sleep and nutrition.  People asked for advice about everything from "How can I better prepare for an appointment with my cardiologist or GP to maximize our time together," to "Why am I awake for an hour in the middle of every night," and "How can I tell whether I'm just cranky today or if I'm suffering from actual anxiety?"  The speakers each had a unique perspective with helpful tips about what it takes to feel balanced and be healthy, but none of the advice they offered was newsworthy or revolutionary.  Sleep more, eat whole foods as much as you can, and stay active(even a minute of walking around your house to break up bouts of sitting qualifies as "activity!")  All good reminders!  Overall, I very much enjoy BWLG events, and the turnout this morning was no exception.

However, my experience of the whole conversation was shaded by an experience I had yesterday, which I feel is an indication of why it's easy to bring a group of 60 women together to talk about why we need more sleep, healthy activity, and positive nutrition.  I met with a client who breezed into the conference room a few minutes late and looking very flustered.  As she settled down I offered to take a minute if she needed some time to get centered, and she burst into tears.  She had come from a meeting with her director(also a female leader in her company), who had just told her that she was not living up to her salaried position, because she wasn't responding to emails after dinner, and hadn't put in enough time on the weekends lately.  This woman has a fierce work ethic and more integrity than most I've had the privilege to collaborate with.  Hearing about someone being disappointed that she had been spending time in the evenings with her husband and two small children instead of responding to after hours work requests?  My heart broke for her! 

To me, a salary means that I will put in as many hours as it takes to get the job done.  During conference weeks, I can easily put in back-to-back 17-hour days that are exhausting.  But there are weeks during the summer or in the middle of ski season when I don't have deadlines, and get to take a half-day to go for a hike or spend a random Wednesday on the slopes with my dad.  Unfortunately, this is not the first time that I have encountered a manager who has the expectation of "salaried" employees to be accessible 24/7, and I think this is a sad factor contributing to our current society. 

The panelists this morning spoke about taking care of yourself in order to be the most productive person you can be, particularly as women attempting to thrive in professional environments.  But how can we as a culture move away from the constant urgency that surrounds us?  Feeling tethered to our email accounts and our cell phones is not the answer to living a balanced and healthy life.  No matter our gender, we have to set boundaries as individuals and focus on working within our limits.  This is a critical step when we make commitments to others - for work, family, or personal obligations.  I can work on that, and you can work on that.  But it will take a community working together to respect ourselves and our potential before the societal norms begin to shift, and I'd like to see the impacts of that change sooner rather than later.   

Please Don't Wake Me Now

My alarm went off five minutes earlier than my husband's this morning. Some days I hit snooze and doze until his alarm goes off, but not this morning.

I got up, started a pot of coffee, and did some morning affirmations before 30 minutes of yoga. While he was in the shower, I spent fifteen minutes triaging my email to check for any surprises, and then put myself together for the day. With him out the door, I got on a conference call, and then spent a half hour following up on client task work. I took a break early on to drive my mom to a medical appointment, swung by the post office to ship a gift to a friend, go to the bank, and stop at the grocery store. I returned home just in time for another work-related call, got the roast for dinner seared/seasoned/started in the crock pot, and then made myself lunch. My afternoon was full of client work, and I also did a consultation with a local non-profit coordinating an awareness walk in the spring. I signed off at 6pm and went to rehearsal, where I spent two and a half hours on stage, preparing for our upcoming concert and discussing our trepidation about the current state of the country. I returned home around 9:15 to find my husband on his computer, so I made a salad, steamed some fresh broccoli, and sat down to eat dinner around 9:45.

 "How was your day?" he asked, as he sat down next to me. It wasn't particularly a good day...there were a lot of miscellaneous things to do, and I didn't feel very focused. "It wasn't a bad day," I shrugged, contemplating all of the unfinished items on my to-do list and unsure how I really felt. "How was your day?" After a heavy sigh, he replied, "Today was a really long day."

He doesn't have a trivial job and I know he works hard. Lots of important people report to him, and he reports to other important people, and there is always tension between time spent in meetings and time actually doing the tasks assigned in meetings. But comparatively, he drove to work, went out to lunch, worked all afternoon and came home, where I assume he just worked some more. I got to exercise, eat healthy food I made myself, run personal errands, help out a family member, volunteer time to a local charity, and put in 6 hours of contracted work for clients I love. I also spent fulfilling time engaged with activist sisters making art to improve our community, and cooked a wholesome meal for my partner.

How was my day? I was a serious bad-ass today, and I am literally living the dream!